Glancing Backard, July 23, 2014

Today is Wednesday, July 23, the 204th day of 2014. There are 161 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On July 23, 1914, Austria-Hungary presented a list of demands to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb assassin; Serbia's refusal to agree to the entire ultimatum led to World War I.

Glancing Backward Locally:

25 years ago - 1989

About 900 Claverack members and their families came recently to the Wysox fire department grounds for the annual electric cooperative meeting.

State Senator Roger Madigan presented both a United States flag and a Pennsylvania flag to members of the Mt. Pisgah Raider 4-H Club recently commemorating the park's 10th anniversary.

Doug Martin presented a plaque recently to Dorothy Remsnyder and family a plaque that will hang in the Towanda American Legion Post 42, honoring her late husband Jack for his many years of service.

50 years ago - 1964

Mrs. Ruth Brennan was elected at the recent convention of the State Legion Auxiliary to serve as a director of the Tri-County Council.

A Ton of Gold certificate has been awarded to a registered Jersey cow owned by Robert H. Eick of Columbia Cross Roads. This award is for cows producing 2,000 pounds of fat or more.

In 1885, Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, died in Mount McGregor, New York, at age 63.

In 1886, a legend was born as Steve Brodie claimed to have made a daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn Bridge into New York's East River. (However, there are doubts about whether the dive actually took place.)

In 1945, French Marshal Henri Petain (ahn-REE' pay-TAN'), who had headed the Vichy (vee-shee) government during World War II, went on trial, charged with treason. (He was convicted and condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted.)

In 1951, Henri Petain died in prison.

In 1952, Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser launched a successful coup against King Farouk I.

In 1967, a week of deadly race-related rioting that claimed 43 lives erupted in Detroit.

In 1977, a jury in Washington, D.C., convicted 12 Hanafi (hah-NAH'-fee) Muslims of charges stemming from the hostage siege at three buildings the previous March.

In 1982, actor Vic Morrow and two child actors, 7-year-old Myca Dinh Le and 6-year-old Renee Shin-Yi Chen, were killed when a helicopter crashed on top of them during filming of a Vietnam War scene for "Twilight Zone: The Movie." (Director John Landis and four associates were later acquitted of manslaughter charges.)

In 1984, Vanessa Williams became the first Miss America to resign her title, after nude photographs of her taken in 1982 were published in Penthouse magazine.

In 1986, Britain's Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London. (The couple divorced in 1996.)

In 1997, the search for Andrew Cunanan, the suspected killer of designer Gianni Versace (JAH'-nee vur-SAH'-chee) and others, ended as police found his body on a houseboat in Miami Beach, an apparent suicide.

In 2011, singer Amy Winehouse, 27, was found dead in her London home from accidental alcohol poisoning.

Ten years ago: Militants in Iraq took hostage an Egyptian diplomat (Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb), demanding his country abandon any plans it had to send security experts to Iraq. (He was freed after three days of diplomatic efforts.) The Pentagon released newly discovered payroll records from President George W. Bush's 1972 service in the Alabama National Guard, though the records shed no new light on the future president's activities during that summer. Joe Cahill, a founding father of the modern Irish Republican Army, died in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at age 84.

Five years ago: Michael Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was named in a search warrant as the target of a manslaughter probe into the singer's death. (Murray was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter.) Authorities arrested 44 people in New Jersey in a corruption probe. Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox pitched the 18th perfect game in major league history, a 5-0 win over Tampa Bay.

One year ago: With a high-stakes showdown vote looming in the House, the White House and congressional backers of the National Security Agency's surveillance program warned that ending the massive collection of phone records from millions of Americans would put the nation at risk from another terrorist attack. (The next day, the House narrowly voted against halting the NSA program.)

Thought for Today: "To be proud and inaccessible is to be timid and weak." - Jean Baptiste Massillon (zhahn bah-TEEST' mah-see-YOHN'), French clergyman (1663-1742).

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